


Looks Red, Tastes Blue

by TheLastWhiteRose



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Horrific Writing lmao, Mild Fluff, Pining, Requited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-19 22:08:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19364872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLastWhiteRose/pseuds/TheLastWhiteRose
Summary: Corrin doesn’t know when she first noticed it, only that once she did, it’s all she can focus on. Whenever her eyes so much as linger on him, they’re drawn to his trademark Cheshire Cat grin. Sometimes he plays dumb, continues his conversation with whoever’s his latest victim, relishing in their awkward attempts to move on without coming off as rude. Sometimes, however, he catches her, and pale, pale blue orbs lock on to ruby, and Corrin has to force her gaze onto something innocuous, lest her cheeks flush as red as her eyes.





	Looks Red, Tastes Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who’s still churning out mediocre fan fiction and being angsty.

Niles smiles like he has nothing to lose. It isn’t a kind smile, just the slightest upturn of his lips that don’t quite reach his eyes. With his teeth bared, lips pulled back, it almost looks as if he’s snarling rather than smiling. Even when he’s laughing raucously, head thrown back, his eyes are cold, more like slabs of ice than the warm oceans they were colored after. Everything he does is a theatrical performance, exaggerated and exacerbated to the point of it almost being comical. His smile is no different.

Corrin doesn’t know when she first noticed it, only that once she did, it’s all she can focus on. Whenever her eyes so much as linger on him, they’re drawn to his trademark Cheshire Cat grin. Sometimes he plays dumb, continues his conversation with whoever’s his latest victim, relishing in their awkward attempts to move on without coming off as rude. Sometimes, however, he catches her, and pale, pale blue orbs lock on to ruby, and Corrin has to force her gaze onto something innocuous, lest her cheeks flush as red as her eyes.

Their “flirting”, if she could call it that, comes to a head on a warm spring day. Truthfully, she’d never been flirted with, and not for lack of trying. Gods, she could still remember how red Jakob’s face had turned when she tried a raunchy pick up line on him. Niles isn’t like that, though. He’s suave and svelte and everything her romance novels said a man should be, and if the glint in his eye is any indication of what he wants to talk to her about, she knows that this is the part in the romance novel that the main heroine is humiliated beyond belief.

“So,” drawls Niles, and his voice does something to Corrin that she can’t quite explain. Whatever the case, it draws her gaze from his lips to his eyes, which glint with subtle amusement. “Would you like to explain why you’ve been eye fucking me for the past three weeks?”

“I-it’s not eyefucking!” Corrin manages to squeak out, and the smirk that pulls out of him makes her flush an even deeper red.

He laughs at that, the damned dastard, and Corrin can’t help but keep noticing the way his mirth doesn’t reach his eyes, the subtle shift from the expression in his eyes to the one he was outwardly displaying. For a fleeting moment, she has an unmistakable urge to kiss him, to see how he’d react, but like the Nohrian princess she is, she maintains as much of her composure as she can.

“I don’t know about that, princess,” says Niles, and the way he fixes his gaze upon her sends a new wave of heat flooding to her face, and she quickly averts her eyes. “Seems to me like our highly esteemed commander has a little crush.”

That was the second thing Corrin noticed about him. Everything he says is tinged with contempt, almost as if he pities each and every member of the army in varying degrees. It annoys most people, but like all things Niles embodies, Corrin has come to find it endearing.

“So what if I do?”

That gets a reaction out of him, and his snow white eyebrows skyrocket. His carefully concocted smirk drops, and he almost looks remorseful, as if he’d forced her to admit something she wasn’t ready to. Still, she faces his stare head on, desperately searching for a sign of reciprocation, as unlikely as it may be. Like always, he’s unreadable.

Finally, after what feels like forever, he responds. It’s in a short, clipped sentence, one not necessarily full of malice, but instead, self loathing.

“I’d say that if you had a crush on me, you’re an even bigger fool than I for having feelings for a princess.”

It still takes Corrin time to make Niles open up to her. Time and time again, she invites him to her room, and time and time again, he teases her for inviting “vermin” into the company of royalty. He still smiles like he’s got nothing to lose, but he’s gentler now, at least around her. If anything, he’s kinder, softer, not all sullen looks and brooding eyes, at least when they’re alone in the confines of  her treehouse, where no prying eyes can see his heart.

And for that, Corrin is grateful.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this, kudos and comments are appreciated!


End file.
